This is a work in progress - so if you think I've said something which needs improvement, or you know better, then please get in touch. PM me on Runescape any time.
Here's the content so far...
There are lots of skills in Runescape, and mining is just one. So why do people mine?
To get to high level mining, you have to mine a lot. And I don't just mean "a lot" - I mean "A LOT"! I have mined most days, usually for at least an hour. Some days I've played for several hours! It took me many months to get to level 60, and into the Miners Guild. And level 60 requires LESS THAN AN EIGHTH of the experience you need to get to level 85, which is when you can mine Runite.
Unless you actually WANT to get repetitive strain injury, short sight, glaucoma, and gnawing insanity, take it easy! Don't mine too much - mix it up with other Runescape activities, and of course, you could always try REAL LIFE as well!
Unlike with fishing or runecraft, with mining there are limited resources - if several miners are mining one rock, then only one will get the ore. This simple fact leads to much frustration and conflict, particularly amongst low level miners. You will be hacking away at a rock, and then some ****** will come along and grab the ore from under your pickaxe.
This may well annoy you. But in fact, those ore grabbers are dumber than they know - because they are lowering their chances of striking ore, even if they are higher level than you. In general, a higher level miner will strike ore before a lower level one... but not always.
Mining is not an incremental skill - in other words, if you've been mining a rock for 10 hacks, you have no greater chance of striking ore than you did when in your first hack. Every strike of the pickaxe rolls the dice, so even a low level miner can outmine a high leveller sometimes.
So my advice is not to compete with other miners. It'll annoy you as much as it annoys them, and you will both advance more slowly. Go for spare rocks and hack away. If someone has a position where they're next to two rocks, leave them to it - don't waltz up and say "One rock each" - you're halving their mining rate. Remember, they'll soon be gone to the bank.
A good strategy is to pick a quiet time of day to mine. I usually mine in the Miners Guild in the mornings - the evenings are too busy. Busy times are the perfect moment to sell things that you've smithed. While I'm not mining, I smelt, sell items and improve other skills that help me with mining.
Encourage your fellow miners to keep to their own rocks. Leave rocks for other miners if they look like they're struggling to get a look in. You'll be amazed how much other people are grateful. If I'm in the Miners Guild and someone else wants mithril, I make sure they get half the rocks - just from doing this people have given me more ore than I would have mined - just to say thanks, and I've made new mining friends!
A golden rule with mining is to always, always use the best pickaxe you can. This means, even when you're level 1, save up 137gp and get an iron pickaxe right away. Wow! Iron is so much better than bronze! As soon as you're a level 6 miner, blow 500gp on a steel pick. At level 21 get a mithril pick for 1300gp, at level 31 get and adamantite pick for 3200gp, and at level 41 get a rune pick for a cool 32000gp.
You may think that your new pickaxe is expensive, but it will pay for iteself in minutes. Mining is much quicker with each new pickaxe type. In particular, when you get to level 41, do shell out for rune pickaxe - it may seem a lot, but it represents just 213 coals, which you will mine in less than an hour.
You can buy all pickaxe types from Nurmof, at the Northeast corner of the Dwarf mines. You can also buy the low level pickaxes from other miners when they visit the bank. Almost every miner has old pickaxes hanging about. You may be able to pick up runite pickaxes from PK'ers in Varrock or Edgeville - but not that often - most rune pick owners make sure they never lose the key tool of their trade.
Remember, a pickaxe can also be used as a weapon - but only if your attack skill is good enough to weild it. It's a good idea to do this as soon as you're able to, because it frees up one space in your inventory. However, it's better to have 27 spaces filled quickly than 28 spaces filled slowly... so if your attack skill isn't as good as your mining skill (and why should it be?) then don't delay, upgrade your pickaxe today!
Caring for your pick is essential. There are three main hazards:
If you lose your pick from this hazard, then you really aren't concentrating. If you get attacked by scorpions, rock golems, or other mine monsters then there's no shame in running - you're here for the ore, not to be a hero! Even if you are killed, then you shouldn't lose your pick - it's likely to be one of your three most valuable items... and you're not skulled, are you?
This is easy to do: you're hacking away at a rock, and suddenly the head of your pick flies off. When I first bought a rune pickaxe I was paranoid that I'd lose it from this hazard - but now I know that there's no danger of that as long as you stay alert. Here's the deal.
When the head flies off, it'll be nearby. Look on the scanner map, and it'll appear as a red dot. Go and pick it up RIGHT AWAY. This is because for the first few seconds (I reckon about 15, maybe longer) only you can see the head. After that, anyone can pick it up. There's plenty of time as long as you act NOW. Stay cool, walk over, and pick it up. DON'T engage in conversation with fellow miners until the head is safely in your inventory. Now it's time to make amusing comments.
Okay, now you can put the axe back together. If you were weilding the pickaxe, you now have its handle in your weapon hand. Unequip it so it's visible in your inventory, and simply use the head on the handle. There you go - job done. A good miner can repair an axe and get mining again in only a few seconds.
A downright sneaky thing to do would be to pick up someone else's pick head when it comes off. Personally, I've never done that, but if you ever get the chance then remember, if it's a rune pick then you can make a new one just by breaking a bronze pick (which doens't take long on tough, high-level rocks) and using the bronze pick handle with the rune head. To get that chance, someone will have had to be not concentrating on mining for at least 30 seconds. They may be a macroing autominer - in which case they deserve everything they get - steal away! But if they seem like a nice person, maybe you should consider giving it back... you'll have to wrestle with your own conscience on this one.
This is less usual, and I had never fallen foul of this hazard until recently. Sometimes when you hack at a rock then you get smoke coming out of it. STOP MINING NOW! DON'T HIT THE ROCK WHILE IT'S SMOKING. If you do, the rock will explode, doing about 12 points of damage to you (which may or may not be a problem, depending on your level) but WORSE THAN THAT, it bends your pickaxe out of shape.
If this happens to you, then DO NOT throw your pickaxe away. I have picked up two adamantite pickaxes that ill-informed miners simply dumped when they got damaged - and I made myself a cool 6000gp from their mistakes.
You cannot repair a bent pickaxe, but Nurmof the Dwarf can - and for a very reasonable rate. For a few gold pieces (free for bronze & iron, 17gp for steel, 43gp for mith, 107gp for addy, 1100gp for rune) he'll bash your pickaxe back into working order. Nurmof is located at the North-West corner of the Dwarf Mines, North of Falador. But you knew that already! When you get to him, click on the bent pick in your inventory, and use it on Nurmof - he'll then ask you if you want him to repair it.
There has been a rumour going around that if you click once to mine, then a second time just as your pick is swinging towards the rock, then you'll strike ore immediately. I've tried it, and I have to say that I DON'T BELIEVE THIS IS TRUE. I think this is just an illusion, and it makes you feel like you're mining faster when actually you would have struck ore anyway. I think that it's a bit like pressing a road crossing button loads of times - it doesn't make the traffic stop sooner, but loads of people still do it.
I've tried it on adamantite and mithril rocks, as well as coal and iron ore, and I can't tell the difference in hacking time. However, I have yet to do a scientific test, timing how long it takes to mine a whole inventory full. In general, mining is slowed down by respawn rates as much as by hacking time.
So who is the enemy of all miners? Cowardly PK'ers who kill wilderness miners for their ore? Rock Golems? Rip-off ore merchants? Not so - the enemy is closer to home... in fact, often in the Miners Guild!
Mining gets respect. It proves that you have spent many hours hacking away in the underground, fighting scorpions, getting stung by swarms of killer insects, keeping going even when the going gets tough.
However, there are some people who seek the quick and easy path. They don't have dedication, or patience, or persistence - just greed. So they set up autominers that mine for them, while they sleep. These autominers are cheats. Their robot programs block real players from mining. They never speak, they never rest, they don't have good manners.
I have no respect for autominers, (also known as robots, or just bots) and I always report them. I also encourage other miners who are present and see the bot in action to report them too.
When Jagex get an abuse report, they get a snapshot of the last 60 seconds of activity. They will see all the things you said, and it will be easy for them to see that you have made your best efforts to identify that the charcter you are reporting is indeed a bot. Remember, to ban a character, they need evidence. You have just provided it.
By including the character name in each of your statements, you are making them unambiguous. Sometimes, people think that you are talking to someone else, not them, so they won't answer.
Also, importantly, by being thorough, and giving the suspect a chance to show that they aren't an autominer, you have just protected yourself from any acusation of abusing the reporting system - so you are quite safe.
I have heard lots of miners say "I report bots but Jagex do nothing". However, with my system I have had at least a 90% kill rate with bots - I have never seen them again!
Some bots have cryptic names to try to stop you from spelling them right. The sneakiest I have seen was a bot called something like "X Y Z X V 2" (This is not a real name, just an example). Notice the way there are TWO spaces between the "X" and the "Y", while there is just one space between everything else. Also, V looks like Y, and 2 looks like Z - the botter was hoping I would spell the name "X Y Z X Y Z". Botters can be sneaky, so stay sharp!
Some miners try to level up quickly by dropping ore as soon as they have mined it. Usually, they do this with iron ore, but also sometimes with tin or copper. That's why sometimes there are large quantities of ore available for free at mine sites.
Personally, I don't think it's worth it. Dropping ore requires a surprising number of clicks - and even though you aren't moving, it takes a fair amount of time - as much as a whole minute to drop a full inventory. It's also boring, and, most obviously of all, it neither makes you money nor levels up your smithing.
I recommend always banking your ore, except for tin or copper you grab while waiting for iron rocks to respawn. Walk around your mine site (except for scorpion-infested zones) then run to the bank - it doesn't take long. When you're at the Dwarf Mine you may need to walk back from the bank - it'll allow you to get your breath back for scorpion dodging (see below).
One simple rule: never, never sell ore in shops. They pay peanuts compared to what players will pay.
So, you have just filled up your inventory with ore. Don't mess about trying to sell 27 or 28 pieces - people won't pay as much for it, and it'll mark you out as a noob miner. Always bank your ore and withdraw it as a note to sell it.
Sell ore in batches of at least 100. I suggest only selling round numbers - 100, 200 and so on at a time. When you're negotiating a price, you need to make sure that both you and the person you're trading with can do the maths. The best places to sell are Falador East Bank (near the Mining Guild) and Varrock West Bank (near the anvils).
The main type of ores to sell are iron and coal. Few people buy copper or tin, and it's not worth much anyway. You'll make a bit more money if you smelt iron and coal into steel bars - but if you're not interested in smelting, you'll save time (which means you can mine more).
Remember: time is ore, ore is money. So if you spend ages trying to sell, you might as well not have bothered.
You can sell 100 iron ore for 5000-10000 gold. Sell at 50 each for a quick sale, 75 each typically, and if you're lucky (or persitent) you might get 100 each.
Don't get clever with ore prices - you won't be able to bargain someone up in price above a certain level, because of the value of the products that you can make with the ore. Ten coal plus five iron ore is five steel bars or one steel plate armour. Steel plate is worth an absolute maximum of 1900gp - you can buy it for 2000gp in a shop.
The hi-alch value of steel plate is fixed at 1200gp - what you could normally sell it for in an armour shop. Yes, you can sell steel plate for more to players, but it takes time, and time is money. Get it?
Weirdly, you can sell steel bars for more than 250gp each - maybe as much as 500gp! This is because people are prepared to lose money to improve their smithing skill - they buy steel bars expensively, smith it, and sell the steel plate they produce for much less.
Coal is easy to sell, and the best way to make cash fast for mid-level miners. On free worlds coal sells for 100-150 each. It's a potential goldmine (well, a coal mine... never mind). Now and then you can sell in large quanities for 175 each, but only to high-levellers when they're impatient.
Why do people always want coal, and why do they pay so much? Well, making one mithril bar requires 4 coal, an addy bar requires 6 coal, and a runite bar needs 8 coal! The people that can smelt addy and runite are high level smiths - and they tend to have lots of money. So you have a perfect market - high levellers (with plenty of cash) need something that's easy enough for mid-levellers (who want money) to acquire.
I read somewhere that raw ore transactions account for more than 20% of the whole runescape economy. Who works this stuff out?
There's no shortcut to levelling up - you just have to mine lots of rocks! At first you shoulkd mine equal quantities of tin and copper, which you can either smelt into bronze, or sell. I recommend smelting - even though it's tedious, you'll have a big advantage later if you can smelt steel bars.
Before you can mine iron ore, the best place to mine is anywhere where you can get at free rocks! Southeast Varrock is a good area to start - it's reasonably near to Varrock's East bank.
Hack away until your mining level is level 15 and you can get iron. My recommendation is to mine iron immediately, but if you're waiting for a respawn, then drop-mine tin or copper. Now you're motoring!
Bank your iron ore, and forget about banking copper and tin. Iron ore is much more profitable.
Next up, try the Dwarf Mine, North of Falador. It's a bit of a pain to find at first, but you'll see a trapdoor which you can go down.
Get mining again, and bank your ore in Falador.
Here's a trick - if you go into the Eastern mining gallery there's much more ore, inclding iron and coal. The catch is, it's also awash with nasty giant scorpions. So when you feel you're tough enough, go for it! Mine iron ore as fast as you can, avoid the scorpions, and use the exit up the stairs on the East wall - you'll emerge in a small building inside the walls of Falador. It's just a short run across the square to the bank - much more convenient! The reason I don't suggest trying this entrance first is because those scorpions are dangerous - you need to scope it out from the North end first.
The Dwarf mine is a good place to level up, but you must stay sharp. Dopn't get rolled by the giant scorps! In fact, if you mine smart, they're not that dangerous. The key is this: level 14 giant scorpions aren't aggressive. They only turn on you if you catch them with your pick, which is easy to do. Right-click on each rock and choose "mine rock", rather than left-clicking. If you left click, you'll see that the option "Attack Giant Scorpion" is present even when the scorp is some way away - even a strike near them will prompt them to retaliate.
That said, some scorpions are larger, level 35 King Scorpions. These are no joke for mid-levellers. They are highly aggressive, and they'll attack you whenever they get the chance.
To keep on mining dodge behind rocks so they can't get to you. My recommendation: in the East Gallery ALWAYS have "run" mode activated while you're mining. Because you're not running far (just around the ore boulders) you won't get tired, but you can avoid Kings more easily.
Okay, so what if you aren't satisfied with the Dwarf Mine? You could try the Scorpion Pit mine North of Al-Kharid... but guess what's in that area - if you're allergic to aggressive arthropods, avoid this zone. It's nice to get out in the sunlight sometimes, though - and there are a wide variety of rocks. The nearest bank is in Al-Kharid, due South.
My advice is to keep mining in the Dwarf Mine - the bank is nearer if you use the East stairway. As you keep mining, you'll feel like you're going crazy, and it won't do anything for your tan - but these are hazards that miners have to put up with. Try to avoid stupid miners who always want to compete for your rocks.
Sooner or later you'll have levelled up enough to mine coal. At first, mining it can be tough - it takes many strikes to get, and it respawns slowly. I suggest being opportunitic - grab iron and coal in mixed batches. As your skill progresses, you'll notice that you're grabbing proportionately more coal.
Once you feel confident about mining coal, then you should have gained several combat levels as well, fighting off scorpions. Now, if you're feeling daring, and you're sick of competitive miners who waste your time (and theirs) then you could try mining iron and coal in the wilderness, at a tiny mine site (3 coal, 2 iron ore) Northeast of Edgeville.
This is quite near Edgeville bank, but it's dangerous for two reasons: (1) It's the wilderness - so other players can attack you, and (2) It's full of viscious and aggressive skeleton warriors.
You may find the danger fun, though! One way to minimise risk is to take a whole inventory full of cheap or free food with you (there are rats in the Edgeville dungeon that cook up a treat - there's a range above the Edgeville shop). Before you swing at each rock, scoff some food and free up an inventory slot. Keep a couple of bits of high quality food (tuna or lobsters) with you for emergencies, and don't swap these off for ore - if you don't need them, use them on the next run. If you get this right you'll stay on virtually full hitpoints all the time.
Remember - you're there for the ore, not to kill skeletons. If you spend your time and hitpoints slaying them, you won't have mined much ore. However, I still believe the Dwarf mine is a better bet overall - those skeletons are dangerous!
Now your next target is the truly excellent miners guild. This is one of the best places to mine in all of Runescape! The catch is that for you to be let in the door, you must be level 59. But wait! The rule is that only level 60 miners are allowed... but if you're sneaky you can quaff a Dwarven Stout just before you approach the guards - your mining level will go up to 60 and they'll let you in.
Well done! But a word of warning... you think you're an elite miner now... but in fact, you're the lowest level miner in the guild! Stay calm and don't compete for rocks - there are 37 coal rocks in the guild - enough for everyone except at the very busiest times. If you do start competing, be warned, very high level miners may retailate and start stealing your ore. You'll probably notice that really high level miners have good manners - this isn't chance - increasing your mining level above about 75 takes a long time - and that time may double if you behave antisocially!
Where to now? After you have mined a few thousand coals (yes, I wrote that right... as a beginner miner you may not even be able to imagine 1000 coal - but at this stage you will routinely mine in batches of 1000) you may get bored with the Miners Guild and want to try a riskier, but potentially profitable strategy... deep wilderness mining - but that is another story.